Richard's Kid sale to add spice to Pacific Classic week

DEL MAR  Doug O’Neill’s assistant trainer Leandro Mora was born in the small town of Tecalitlán in Jalisco, Mexico, a place he said is the birthplace of mariachi music.

When Mora, 53, found out Saturday he was getting Richard’s Kid from Bob Baffert’s barn, the mood went mariachi-crazy in Doug O’Neill’s stables.

“Believe me there was excitement in the barn,” said Mora, who began overseeing O’Neill’s barn Sunday as O’Neill began serving a 40-day suspension for a third case of overage of TCO2 in one of his horses two years ago.

Richard’s Kid, likely the second-favorite in Sunday’s Grade I, $1million TVG Pacific Classic, was sold and moved from Baffert’s barn to O’Neill’s at 7 p.m. Saturday night. The 7-year-old son of Lemon Drop Kid was purchased from Zabeel Racing International Corp., run by Sheikh Rashid al Maktoum.

The new ownership group paid what a source said was $1 million for the horse. The group is headed by majority owner Paul Boghossian, his sons, Paul. Jr., and Christopher, the three Bs in Triple B Farms, along with Santa Anita Park CEO Mark Verge, Dave Kenny, Steve Keh and Danny Kramer, a Great Friends Stable member.

Nothing about what Mora termed a “power deal,” put together hastily, set well with Baffert, the Hall of Fame trainer who is leading stakes winner at the meeting with five and all-time leading stakes winner at Del Mar with 98.

“I feel like I got my pockets picked,” Baffert said. “I was surprised and disappointed just by the way it was handled. It was handled very unprofessionally. I knew the horse could be bought. I was told they were going to sell him after the race. So the courtesy never was extended to me. I heard it at the racing office (Saturday) that he was sold.

“The way it went down was shaky. But that’s part of the game, so we move on. He’s a nice little horse. He’s been good to me and everyone who has owned him. The groom really took it hard. I feel bad for him.”

Mora and O’Neill barn manager Steve Rothblum praised Richard’s Kid’s condition, no surprise to Baffert, who has been saying for weeks that Richard’s Kid is in peak condition. Fellow Hall of Famer Ron McAnally said Baffert believes Richard’s Kid could win the Classic, a race he won in 2009 for Arnold Zetcher and in 2010 for Zabeel Racing. If he wins it for the new group, he’ll win the $1 million race for his third different owner, something unprecedented in horseracing.

“He’s doing really good right now, just loves this place and is doing great over it,”